The Sacred Heart Saints once again made easy work of an opponent but everyone's eyes are more set on a top-two finish in Conference III football action and they are looking very promising heading into their bye week this week.
"We've got a lot of potential," observes centre Ryan Shumay, a day after their most lopsided win of the season so far, a 67-6 annihilation of the Esterhazy Warriors.
"They've got size but no speed," he added in observation of why that win seems so easy. "They don't work well together, either."
Shumay's Saints are a perfect 4-0 after wins over Melville, Esterhazy, Kamsack and Swan River.
All did not go according to plan for Sacred Heart in the win over the Warriors. Placekicker Robert Okeny who's moves on the football and soccer field ought to have some college interested in acquiring him after high school, ran the ball for at least one touchdown, suffered an injury in that game.
The Saints jumped out to an early lead when Okeny returned the opening kickoff 78 yards for a touchdown. "We wanted to get a good start, and Robert gave that to us. There were some great blocks, but he was able to pick his way through traffic then use his speed to get outside. One of the things we talked about all week was getting production from all three phases of the game, and our special teams gave us the start we wanted" offered SHHS head coach Trent Senger.
The Saints followed up their good start with a powerful running game. Preston Liebrecht ran for 239 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Saints ground attack. Senior captain Dakota German said, "Every day in practice we have to try to stop Preston's speed and quickness. It's good to see him running like that against someone else for a change."
In addition to Liebrecht's four touchdowns, the Saints scored on touchdown runs from Morgan Giroux (2), Travis Buzinski, and Brian Lubiniecki. The Saints total offense of 583 yards marked a season high.Sacred Heart had a 30+ point lead going into the third quarter when Esterhazy finally got one back. For some on the Saints' sidelines, that was not a good sign.
"We were thinking it was over... that's been our problem with everyone," suggests Shumay."We have the mentality that the game is over before it even started."
Contributing on defence were interceptions from Martin Pearson and Colin Shewchuk. "Martin had a great drop from his linebacker position, and read the play perfectly. I think he surprised himself when he caught the ball, but did manage to scramble for some big yards. Colin's interception was an incredible athletic play. The ball was tipped, and he made an amazing diving catch. It was definitely one of the highlights of the night" said coach Scott Musqua.
Shumay said that next up are Sacred Heart's two most bitter rivals, Fort Qu'Appelle and Lumsden.The three schools will likely be fighting each other for the right to play on home turf in the playoffs.He said Lumsden has piled up over 200 points scored through only three games played so far this season.
Zero against.
"You never want to count Melville out," Shumay insisted.
"We're focussing on Fort Qu'Appelle. Our goal is to have a home playoff game."
Said Shumay, SHHS has got a good running game and their passing game has been putting up points too. Cornerback Travis Inglis has five interceptions through four games.
SHHS heads into the bye week then gets back into action when they host Fort Qu'Appelle in what everyone in yellow and black hopes will be their first legitimate challenge of the season Oct. 7 at 4 p.m.-with files from SHHS
